Developed beginning in 1892 and operative until the 1930s, the complex is a rare example of a late 19th-century large-scale (for the time) brewery.

Its dominant feature is the six-story Romanesque main brewery building, built in 1882 and given its present facade in 1896.

It had larger above-ground facilities, made possible by advances in refrigeration, and its bottling plant, a recent innovation, was located across a public way (East Pearl Street) to satisfy tax authorities.

The business was economically successful, undergoing several expansions through the mid-1910s, but was shut down with the advent of Prohibition in 1919.

After Prohibition ended, the plant was acquired by the New Haven Brewing Company, which produced beer for about ten years.